How do you defend yourself against the unseen battles of life? Today, we uncover the profound wisdom found in Ephesians 6:10-18, dissecting the Armor of God piece by piece. From the helmet of salvation to the sword of the Spirit, we unravel the critical roles each element plays in fortifying a believer's faith. With personal stories and scriptural insights, we highlight how prayer, praise, and scripture memorization are not just practices but powerful tools to stand firm against spiritual adversity. Join us as we emphasize the importance of continual spiritual growth and preparedness in facing life's challenges.
In the second half of our episode, we tackle the day-to-day distractions that sap our spiritual vitality and discuss actionable steps to strengthen our faith. By consciously prioritizing prayer, Bible reading, and spiritual disciplines, we can deepen our relationship with God and reinforce our spiritual armor. We challenge both ourselves and our listeners to make meaningful sacrifices, questioning the sincerity of our faith if we cannot do so. Remember, while salvation is a gift, maintaining a robust spiritual connection requires dedicated effort. Tune in and embark on a journey of faith and resilience with us.
How do you defend yourself against the unseen battles of life? Today, we uncover the profound wisdom found in Ephesians 6:10-18, dissecting the Armor of God piece by piece. From the helmet of salvation to the sword of the Spirit, we unravel the critical roles each element plays in fortifying a believer's faith. With personal stories and scriptural insights, we highlight how prayer, praise, and scripture memorization are not just practices but powerful tools to stand firm against spiritual adversity. Join us as we emphasize the importance of continual spiritual growth and preparedness in facing life's challenges.
In the second half of our episode, we tackle the day-to-day distractions that sap our spiritual vitality and discuss actionable steps to strengthen our faith. By consciously prioritizing prayer, Bible reading, and spiritual disciplines, we can deepen our relationship with God and reinforce our spiritual armor. We challenge both ourselves and our listeners to make meaningful sacrifices, questioning the sincerity of our faith if we cannot do so. Remember, while salvation is a gift, maintaining a robust spiritual connection requires dedicated effort. Tune in and embark on a journey of faith and resilience with us.
My website is https://www.godslovingsacrifice.com
Speaker 1:
Hello, today we're going to talk about the pieces of the armor of God. We've talked about the armor of God before, because I really love the armor of God, and it says of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full armor of God so that, when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground after you have done all to stand. Stand firm, then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, the breastplate of righteousness in place, with your feet fitted with readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, which can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil. One Take the helmet of salvation, the sword of the spirit, which is God's word, and pray in the spirit on all occasions, with all kinds of prayers and requests With this in mind, be alert and always keep praying for all the Lord's people. I just think that's just so wonderful that we get all of that, but if you really listen to what you are doing, you get the helmet of salvation comes from Jesus Christ, and when you get that salvation, you get the shield of faith, because with your salvation, he gives every person a measure of faith and that is your shield. You have the belt of truth. You have your feet shod with the gospel of peace. You have the breastplate of righteousness, which is God's righteousness, not ours. How do you get those? How do you get some of these? We know that the sword of the Spirit comes from the Spirit. We know that salvation comes from Jesus Christ. We know His righteousness comes from God and we know the shield of faith comes from salvation and the faith that God gives us. But how do you get the whole suit and how do you use it? Well, it tells you in those scriptures. It said and pray in the spirit on all occasions, with all kinds of prayers and requests, with this in mind, be alert and always keep praying for all the Lord's people. Be alert and always keep praying for all the Lord's people. When you are praying, when you're talking to God. God inhabits our prayers, god inhabits our praise.
Speaker 1:
But if you look at all of the pieces, a lot of them come from the Word of God. Your feet shod, you have to be in the Word, the belt of truth, you have to be in the word. The sword of the spirit is what's going to bring the word that you keep in your heart to remembrance when you need it. When Jesus was in the desert and Satan was tempting him, he didn't need the armor. He is the armor, but he used the sword of truth against Satan. He didn't need the armor, he is the armor, but he used the sword of truth against Satan because Satan would say something and Jesus would say it is written and defeated. Just kind of wait till the end of the thing to tell you this, but it's going to be very short three to five minutes but we are going to together memorize scriptures from the Word of God, scriptures that you need to have in your heart so that when the Satan tempts you, when the flaming arrows comes at you, you have the foundation to go from. So be looking for that, but being in the word of God is the most important thing. We can have salvation, but if it just ends with that, then you're not protected. We talk about works. Once you have salvation, there are works must be done, not for salvation, but to grow closer to God, to grow your strength. You take that measure of faith and you increase that faith by reading the word of God, by praying, by seeking his face.
Speaker 1:
I told you it's been a really crazy year for me this year. My son had to do part of last week's podcast because my computer broke and I had to get a new computer. And I'm on my new computer now and today I'm sitting here and there's water running and I don't know where it's coming from. And I went in and I opened the closet door where my furnace and water heater is and there was hot water flowing out of the bottom of my hot water heater. So my first words when that happened because I felt instantly let down you know I was was just about right. It's like God, why is this happening? But I didn't say God, why is all this happening? I said Satan is a liar. So I know that he's a liar. The word tells me he's a liar. So it's very important to be in the word and to put on the armor of God. You need to pray and praise the Lord. That's how you get the armor on. When you feel down, when you feel like everything's going against you, and you come in and you sit down and I put on certain music and the music is so uplifting and I start praising the Lord. And once I praise the Lord, I feel like I can defeat anything. I can defeat anything, and that's what it's for. Now we're going to go over them one by one.
Speaker 1:
All of the armor of God is for protection. All of it, most of it, is for protecting us, to quench the fiery darts of the devil and the things that come against us. But we have one thing to fight back with, and that is the sword of the spirit. That is our weapon. How do you think that weapon is used? Well, let's look. The sword of the spirit is the word of God. It is our only offensive weapon in our arsenal. The defensive weapons that we have in our arsenal protect us. They cover our chest, they cover our waist, they cover our feet. We have a shield that we put in front of us, but they all protect us. But the sword of the Spirit the scripture says that it can cut into the marrow. The helmet of salvation is one of the most vital pieces of the spiritual armor, because your head for attack is a vulnerable area and without the helmet of salvation you're not going to have that measure of faith, you're not going to have that righteousness, you're not going to have all the things that we get from God when we're under his salvation, and the shield of faith quenches the fiery darts of Satan.
Speaker 1:
The Jews of the gospel, the Roman soldiers, were given real sturdy sandals. They had spikes on the bottom of them so they kept firm footing when they went into battle. The gospel is our spikes. The gospel gives us our foundation, our firm footing. That's why we need to know the word, that's why we need to read the word. The breastplate of righteousness that covers our heart and it reminds us that we need to stand firm. If you go back and look at that scripture that I said I think there's three times it says stand, stand, stand, stand. That's what we're supposed to do. We're not supposed to cower, we're not supposed to run away, we're supposed to stand, and that breastplate of righteousness covering our heart keeps us from being led astray by the enemy. The belt of truth is also the scripture. But what does the belt do? If you look at the belt, the belt holds the sword. When the belt wraps around the breastplate and holds everything together, the word of God as our foundation holds all the pieces together. If we are in his word, if we are learning his word, if we are understanding his word, then we are building our armor. Another thing that's really nice is the fact that the pieces of the armor of God are written about in the Old Testament.
Speaker 1:
1 Thessalonians 5.8 said but let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and for a helmet the hope of salvation. Isaiah 59.17 says For he put on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation upon his head, and he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and he was clad with zeal as a cloak. Isaiah 11.5 says the righteousness shall be the belt of his loin and the faithfulness the belt of his waist. Isaiah 52.7 says how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him. That brings good tidings. That publishes peace. That brings good tidings of good. That publishes salvation. That says unto Zion, your God reigns.
Speaker 1:
Proverbs says every word of God is pure. He is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. So, so many places in the Bible you hear about the helmets and the shields, and that's because God wants us protected. He doesn't want us out there on our own. He gives us the strength. And like today, when I said Satan is a liar, and that was me putting up my shield of faith, satan is a liar and that was me putting up my shield of faith because Satan was not going to make me think that God was doing things against me, even though that was my first thought, and I think sometimes we all think. God, why are you letting this happen? He's not. Satan is a liar.
Speaker 1:
One of the things that we didn't talk about is prayer. That's part of your armor prayer. Before you do anything, before you start standing, you should go to prayer. You should start every day asking God for the wisdom to make good decisions. Take the time. Don't get up in the morning and say you've got to go to work at 9.30 and you get up at nine o'clock. Take a shower, put your clothes on and leave. Get up at 8.30. Get in the Word, read the Word, Pray, listen to God. Take time for Him.
Speaker 1:
That lesson was brought home to me. I thought it was the stupidest thing I ever saw and I would get so frustrated when I went to my aunt's house. I loved my aunt and we would go over there and we would have lunch 11, 1130. Her and my mom would be sitting there talking. I'd be sitting on the floor playing One o'clock when her time went off on her clock, right in the middle of a sit and she would get up and go in her bedroom, shut the door For one hour. While we sat out in her living room, my aunt closed herself up into her bedroom and she prayed, she prayed. She was one of the strongest women of God that I knew.
Speaker 1:
You talk about having the armor of God. That woman had the armor of God and she was my example of how you turn to God, how you listen to him An hour a day. How many of us spend five minutes a day really communing with God? We get a cup of coffee, thank you God. Thank, this day is good, thank you, thank you. And you start going.
Speaker 1:
You get out your phone and you're playing a game or you're reading a book on your phone. Are you reading the Bible? Are you not reading the Bible? Could you take the time that you're playing that game and stop and pray? Read the Bible. Gird your feet a little more. Grow your faith shield a little bigger. Make that breastplate a little stronger. Can you do that? Can you give up something for God? If you can't give up something that you think is important to you for God? Check your salvation. The last time I checked.
Speaker 1:
God changes your heart, he makes you want to have a conversation with him. Like I said before, satan is a liar, and when he's telling you oh I'm tired, you just need to play this game for a little while. Oh, you're too tired to read the Bible tonight before you go to bed. Oh, you know, it's so late, you don't have to pray, he's wrong. You want the armor of God, work for it. You don't have to work for salvation. Sometimes I think we really need to work to keep it. Our works is what keeps us close to God and hopefully, learning the Word, committing it to your heart and your body and your soul will grow your faith and will teach you how to depend on the armor of God.
